Founder of Startup Weekend and Startup Enthusiast Based in Boulder, Colorado

Travel Book: Chapter 22

An excerpt from Chapter 22 in my travel book: Reentry Depression. I’m not really feeling this way right now, just popped open the book today and found it, remembered it, and thought I would share. It features the original title for the book, “We Didn’t Save The World, Together” which I just love. Hope you enjoy:

There was deep blue hue to the sky that can only come with the hour of midnight. The low lying, white clouds were all lit up from the flurry of artificial lights below—distilling out and reflecting back, somehow, the energy and purity of a city ready to celebrate, together.

I had just received an email from someone that reads my blog, a barrage of criticisms for taking so many flights. I was ruining the world, I was told. Didn’t I know? My response had the subject line:

“We Didn’t Save the World, Together”

I set off not to see the world, but to not save it. Specifically.

After almost two years, I think that I, no we, have accomplished just that. The worlds 7,000,000,000th person was born this year while the 6,000,000,000th person turned 13. I feel lucky that you can read this in between baby showers, building new hospitals, and figuring out the sexual identity of every member of the Wiggles.

102,600,000 people died during my trip. I’m sorry for y/our loss.

As the news went on another murder reporting spree, we lifted our chins and dreamed of a brighter future. We agreed we could be the change in the world that we wanted to see. That train wreck could just be a conspiracy. That man was shot down because he was evil, or at least he could have been. The drugs in the inner city have nothing, and I mean nothing, to do with any sort of government setup. I, too, hope they find that (white) girl.

Now that we know “cancer is caused from polluted food” and “environmental reporting” has been played out to its fullest, we can all move on to more pleasurable reading.

Stories are told, sold, retold and resold on the basis of a human emotion being sincere and caring toward one another. We have figured out just how to ask a question to get the emotional response for you, and me, to pull out our wallets and attention spans to save that one part in that story.

Fun fact, this chapter features the only photo of me in a book, a reflection in a subway window:

You can buy the book on quite a few formats here. This Book About Travel is the name of the book, it is DRM free and as progressive in publishing formats. A fun project that keeps on spreading and I’m grateful for that.

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About Andrew Hyde

I’m a vagabond and a minimalist that sold everything but 15 things and went on a big trip (82 countries). My most read and respected blog posts are here. This blog has reached millions with writing about minimalism, startups, design, culture and events.